Jay Feaster has been told to come up with a plan for the remainder of the season. As far as I have heard he is proposing two plans. One plan is if the Flames continue to crawl back into the playoff race, and the other is if the Flames were to fall out too far before the trade deadline.

I was almost drinking the kool-aid that the Flames were a much better team than they had showed for much of October and November with the Flames winning four in a row until the New York Islanders rolled into town and the Flames forgot to show up. The entire team looked awful in the first period with the exception of the fourth line once again. David Moss ended up scoring both of Calgary’s goals in the 5-2 loss. With a big game coming in Vancouver against the hottest team in the league the Calgary Flames clearly looked past the Isles and it bit them in the backside.

The problem with that being that the Calgary Flames are not good enough to be looking past any team in the NHL. That is why I am really concerned about the character of this team. A 14th place team in a conference should never overlook an opponent and they did. Too many times this season Calgary has left points on the table in games they have to win and that is why I’m concerned with both choices Jay Feaster will be proposing.

Lets say the Flames are within 4 points of the eighth spot in the conference as we come to the trade deadline. Do you actually trade some youth in an effort to get into the playoff dance and live on the hope that this team is ‘built for the playoffs’? I don’t think that is in the cards, which leaves you with making a ‘hockey trade’. Call me skeptical but I don’t know that there is much on the Flames that would really make that big of a difference trading to get a substantial return.

That leaves plan B. While I don’t think it would be a scorched earth mentality I do believe that a chunk of the core would be dealt with moves geared towards the next couple of years. I honestly don’t see the Flames going into full rebuild mode. And with Jay Feaster’s history I would not be shocked to see him hold Iginla and Kiprusoff and put almost everyone else on the block. I also think Jay Bouwmeester’s days as a Calgary Flame are numbered if the Flames fall back. Just not a Feaster guy if you know what I mean.

Pay close attention during the next four weeks to this team, because the plan could change from game to game until we reach the trade deadline in February.